Justin is Funraise's CEO, a co-founder, and a bad-ass, experienced nonprofit fundraiser. Like a true fundraiser-turned-founder, he breaks down the concepts behind Funraise's mission everywhere he can make nonprofits' voices heard.

Nonprofit friends, today's roundup is BIG.

New SBA guidance, New funding opportunities, New ROI analysis on nonprofit digital ads

First up...

U.S. Small Business Administration still has over $130B left to fund for the Paycheck Protection Plan and there is NEW guidance.

• They've extended the cover period from 8 to 24 weeks from loan origination.
• They've expanded the cap on non-payroll expenses from 25% to 40%. This means you can allocate more of the funding to rent, utilities, etc., and still qualify for forgiveness.

Secondly...

The Robin Hood Foundation has established the Power Fund, a new initiative aimed at funding nonprofits run specifically by people of color.

• They've already committed $10M to the fund, and have Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan on the hook too.
• Their goal is to find organizations who've had success and help them scale that up with funding.

And lastly...

M+R has dropped some serious data analysis that every nonprofit should be reading. The highlights from their latest Benchmarks report are:

• Search Ads had the highest ROI across the digital ad landscape in 2019.
• The AVG cost per lead was $2.14. Find out what your conversion from lead to donor is and find out if it scales for you.

Enjoy the show, folks!

Transcript

Hey, everyone. Welcome back to Nonstop Nonprofit NOW. Today, we've got some great content all about funding. So listen up because we've got some important news to share. The three topics for today, I want to talk about the $130B left as part of the PPP program from the SBA, the government's stimulus as a result of the pandemic. I want to talk about the Power Fund, a new initiative by the Robin Hood Foundation. And lastly, the 2019 Benchmark Report is out and has all sorts of good data. And I want to talk about digital ads and the ROI nonprofits can find there. So let's jump right into today's content.

We're going to start with the Paycheck Protection Program. Those of you, many of you might know that the government had put billions upon close to a trillion dollars in stimulus. A lot of that is accessible for nonprofit organizations. And today, I'm excited to tell you that there's still $130B left to be claimed. The deadline is in early August. And one of the best ways to apply if you're not already using a community bank local to you. These have been the most successful institutions in getting nonprofits, the Paycheck Protection checks. And it has been a great resource for so many. So I want to encourage you to apply. There's also been some new update's guidance to the program. Previously, you had eight weeks to spend the grants and they've extended that to 24 weeks, giving you a lot more time. The second thing they've done is they've increased the cap from 25% to 40%. This means that only 60% of the grants has to go towards payroll. The other 40% can go towards things like rent, mortgage, utilities, etc. to keep the organization running. So lots of good information here. Make sure that your organization applies. And if you follow the requirements, it is very likely that it will be forgiven. I know a lot of nonprofits are concerned about it being a loan, but please take a look at it. And if you're wondering, do we deserve it? If, Kanye West can get $2,000,000 in SBA funding through the PPP program, which is absurd and in my opinion, bull $h!&. Your nonprofit who is changing the world, making lives better, deserves it so apply today.

Alright, next up is the Robin Hood Foundation and the Power Fund, a new initiative aimed at funding nonprofits run only by people of color. So far, the foundation has set aside $10M. And they told CNBC that Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and at least a dozen other institutions are pledging assets to fund this new project to fund nonprofits who are being led by people of color. Today only 10% of donations make their way to organizations run by people of color. And so Wes Moore and the Robin Hood Foundation have launched this amazing initiative to get funding into the hands of organizations, who are doing critical work all around the country as it relates to poverty and so forth. So this is an excellent initiative, something I'm super excited to talk about. So if you are a person of color running a nonprofit, this is something you definitely want to check out.

The last topic for today is digital ads. A new report by M+R benchmarks came out and they talk all about the ROI. The return on investment that digital ads drove in 2019. Why this is important for 2020 is because so much of your budget, as it relates to travel, event expenses and so forth, could be reallocated to a strong digital strategy. And so I want to highlight a few that have proven strong ROIs. Search advertising has the highest return with $3.59, followed by social media with $0.70 return and display ads coming in at $0.74. So this is an opportunity for your nonprofit to fully embrace digital fundraising, to put some dollars behind lead acquisition, donor acquisition and to drive people to your important mission.

That's it for today's show. Thank you so much for joining. Have a wonderful week and stay safe, everyone. Peace out.